WASHINGTON — A NASA investigation into a 2015 SpaceX launch failure concluded a design flaw, rather than a manufacturing defect, likely initiated the chain of events that destroyed the vehicle. NASA released March 12 a public summary of the report by an independent review team convened by NASA after the June 2015 accident during the launch of a Dragon cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station, a mission known as CRS-7. That investigation was performed by NASA’s Launch Services Program at the request of the agency’s associate administrator for…

WASHINGTON — Satellite manufacturers say they are trying to protect their component suppliers from the drought of commercial telecom spacecraft that threatens to put such companies out of business. As the slowdown in geostationary satellite orders enters its fourth year, manufacturers worry that the suppliers they rely on, many being small businesses, won’t survive unless major adaptations take place. To ensure supplier continuity, manufacturers said they are aggressively standardizing the components they use for various satellites, thereby increasing production of the same units. “Over a quarter of our suppliers are small…

No one is more pleased by the president endorsing the idea of a military space force than Rep. Mike Rogers. WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee had planned weeks ago to hold a hearing on “space war-fighting readiness.” In a case of fortuitous timing, the day before the hearing President Trump thrust the topic into the spotlight. No one was more pleased by the president endorsing the idea of a military space force than Rep. Mike Rogers, who chairs the HASC strategic forces subcommittee and has relentlessly pursued the…

WASHINGTON — The space industry’s struggle to draw young professionals is causing its workforce to lose members faster than they are gained, according to research from Deloitte Consulting. “We’ve done a bunch of studies internally looking at the median age across the R&D portfolios for the U.S. government space programs as well as the commercial space market, and the average age of a worker is only getting older,” Jeff Matthews, a space industry veteran who works at Deloitte as a consultant, said March 12 at the Satellite 2018 conference here.…

Members of the Satellite Industry Association will meet on Monday to assess the potential consequences of newly imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. WASHINGTON — Critics of President Trump’s proposed actions on steel and aluminum imports warn that the tariffs could make U.S. aviation and space products more expensive and invite retaliation from partner countries. Fierce opposition to the tariffs from the aerospace industry did not deter the president, who argued that a 25 percent tax on steel imports and a 10 percent tax on aluminum imports are justified “for national…

WASHINGTON — A proposed spaceport on Georgia’s Atlantic coast is one step closer to approval with the release of a draft environmental impact statement regarding the launch facility. The report by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, published March 8, assessed environmental effects from both the construction of Spaceport Camden and proposed launch operations, which could also include landings of vehicle stages back at the spaceport. The draft report makes no specific findings or conclusions, but its assessment of various environmental effects, from air and water pollution…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump offered praise for the U.S. commercial space industry in comments March 8 that appeared to cement previous policy on the issue rather than create new policy. Near the end of a 20-minute session with the media during a Cabinet meeting, Trump discussed commercial spaceflight, prompted by the presence of models of several launch vehicles, including United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and SpaceX’s Falcon 9, on the table. The status of the National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, was one of the topics…

This article originally appeared in the Feb. 12, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine. The surge of new space companies in the last few years has impressed even veteran industry observers. “I’ve never seen the interest level so high to start new businesses,” said Hoyt Davidson, managing partner of investment banking company Near Earth LLC. “It’s a renaissance, a potential space renaissance.” Davidson, speaking on a panel about space investment at the Federal Aviation Administration’s annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington Feb. 8, cited the formation of dozens of new…

WASHINGTON — Members of a NASA safety panel said they see good progress on the development of both exploration systems and commercial crew vehicles, but warn future progress could be hindered by a “bottleneck” of reviews they face. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), meeting March 1 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, didn’t note any new major safety-related problems involving the two commercial crew vehicles under development, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, or NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion programs. However, members raised concerns about the fact…

US Defence Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Robert Ashley spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside National Intelligence Director Dan Coats to make the stark warning. Mr Ashley said: “They understand the dependencies that we have on space and so they’re developing capabilities for how to counter that, whether it’s a direct-energy weapon that is terrestrial, whether it is a co-orbital attack satellite, whether it’s jamming from the ground. “So, they’re looking at strategies and how they develop really kind of a layered approach to deny us that capability…